Science // Organisms & Life Processes

Living Things Vocabulary

Name and use vocabulary for what makes something living — alive, dead, never been alive, movement, nutrition, growth, reproduction, sensitivity, excretion — and apply these terms when classifying objects and explaining why plants and animals count as living things

Ages
5 to 7
Type
Language
Builds on
0 topics
Leads to
2 topics

Quick check

Can the learner explain why a rock is not alive but a weed is — using a science word like 'nutrition' or 'growth' rather than just saying 'it moves'?

Ask this to see whether the topic is secure.

Topic // Mastery

What mastery looks like

What a learner can do once this topic is secure.
  • Correctly classify objects as living, dead, or never been alive and give a reason using one of the life process terms
  • Name at least five life processes using the correct vocabulary
  • Explain why a plant is alive using at least two life process words

Topic // Map

Where this fits

What to learn first and what this topic opens up, with the reason for each link. Required links come first.
  • RequiredMust come first
  • HelpfulHelps, but not essential

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Living Things Vocabulary

Ages 5 to 7 // Language

Leads to

2 topics
  • Living, Dead & Never AliveRequired

    Ecosystems & Habitats // Ages 6 to 7

    Comparing living, dead, and never-been-alive things requires the life processes vocabulary to give reasons

  • What Living Things NeedHelpful

    Organisms & Life Processes // Ages 5 to 7

    Describing what plants and animals need to survive uses life processes vocabulary: nutrition, growth, sensitivity

Topic // Research-informed

Teaching notes

From the Marble Skill Taxonomy. These notes have not been validated in classrooms, so treat them as a starting point for your own judgement.

The approach

For ages 5–7, teach 'living things' vocabulary as language children USE to give reasons, not a list to recite. Children acquire and apply the words living, dead, never been alive, and the life-process words (movement, nutrition/feeding, growth, reproduction, sensitivity, excretion) by binding each word to a visible feature on a real organism and by sorting real and pictured objects into three bins while stating a spoken reason. Deliberately include tricky contrast cases (fire, a wind-up toy, a seed, a shell, a fallen leaf) to surface and challenge the intuitive 'it moves so it's alive' rule, and attach each life-process word to a PLANT as well as an animal so the vocabulary generalises beyond moving animals. The UK KS1 Y2 statutory focus is comparing living / dead / never-been-alive; the seven life processes (MRS GREN) are supporting, non-statutory language in England, and this lesson uses six of them, leaving out respiration (the R) as too abstract for this age. Developmentally, early KS1 children equate living with movement; surfacing fire-is-alive and plant-is-not-alive errors is the point of the lesson, not a failure.

Common misconceptions

  • 'It moves so it's alive' — children over-generalise movement, judging fire, the sun, a clock or a boat to be living.
  • 'Plants (and seeds and fungi) are not alive' — because they are not obviously active or moving; seeds especially are judged non-living.
  • Confusing 'dead' with 'never been alive' — e.g. treating a rock and a fallen leaf as the same category.
  • Attributing intentional, animal-like purpose to plants (a plant grows to the light because it 'wants' to), rather than describing sensitivity as a response.

Useful representations

  • Three-way sorting bench: living / dead / never been alive, with picture and real-object cards.
  • MRS GREN as a supporting mnemonic (Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion, Nutrition) — introduced as helper language, flagged non-statutory.
  • A labelled organism scene where each life-process word maps to a visible feature (roots feeding, leaves sensing light, seeds for reproduction).
  • Word–picture matching cards pairing each life-process term with a photograph that shows it.

Teaching practices

  • Anchor every life-process word to a concrete, observable example on a real or pictured organism, and require children to use the word in a spoken reason ("living because it grows") rather than recite a list.
  • Deliberately include tricky contrast cases in every sort — fire, a wind-up toy, a seed, a shell, a fallen leaf — to surface and then challenge the intuitive 'moves = alive' rule.
  • Apply each life-process word to a PLANT as well as an animal (sap movement, respiration, growth, seed-making, turning to light) so the vocabulary is not tied to moving animals.
  • Use three explicit bins — living / dead / never-been-alive — so children distinguish 'dead' (once alive) from 'never alive', a distinction teachers report pupils routinely confuse.
  • Begin with familiar organisms in the child's own environment before edge cases, building from the concrete outward.

Activities to try

  1. 1

    Tap-to-reveal 'what makes it living' scene

    Why it works: Each life-process word maps to a feature you can see on a real organism, and plants show these processes too — so movement alone does not decide what is living.

    1. Look at a single rich scene containing a tree, a bird, a child, a seed, a fallen leaf, a rock, a toy, and a campfire.
    2. Tap or point to a life-process word (movement, nutrition/feeding, growth, reproduction, sensitivity) and find the evidence for it on the organism: tap 'growth' and a seedling thickens and adds a leaf; tap 'nutrition' and the tree's roots take in water while its leaves use sunlight to make the tree's food, and the bird pecks a berry; tap 'reproduction' and the tree's seeds highlight; tap 'sensitivity' and the leaves slowly turn toward the light (shown speeded up) and the bird turns its head to a sound.
    3. Tap 'movement' expecting only the bird to respond, and notice that parts of the tree move too, shown speeded up: its leaves slowly turn toward the light and its flowers open and close — a plant moves parts of itself even though it cannot walk about.
    4. For each word, say it aloud applied to BOTH a plant and an animal (e.g. 'the tree grows and the bird grows').
    5. Open the campfire flap: 'The fire flickers and grows — is it living?' and talk through how it differs from living things: it burns fuel but does not feed and use food to build its own body, it cannot sense and respond to its surroundings, and it can spread but does not have young that grow up.
  2. 2

    Three-way sort with a spoken reason

    Why it works: Deciding living / dead / never-been-alive means checking several life processes and, for non-living things, whether they were ever part of something alive — not just whether they move.

    1. Sort real and pictured objects into three bins: living / dead / never been alive.
    2. Start with familiar organisms from the child's own environment (a growing plant, a pet, a person) before moving to edge cases.
    3. Include the tricky contrast cases: fire, a wind-up or toy dog, a seed, a shell, a fallen leaf, a wooden chair, a rock.
    4. After placing each object, pick the life-process word that justifies the choice and say the reason aloud ('the shell is dead because it was part of a living snail').
    5. For 'dead' versus 'never been alive', trace the material to its origin: wood came from a tree and wool from a sheep (dead / once alive), while plastic and metal were never alive.
  3. 3

    Word-to-picture matching and a check sort

    Why it works: I can recognise which word names which life process and use the right word when I classify an object.

    1. Match each clearly observable life-process word (movement, nutrition, growth, reproduction, sensitivity) to a photograph that shows it, and treat excretion as 'getting rid of waste' with an everyday example (such as an animal producing waste) rather than requiring an unambiguous single photo.
    2. Sort six items into living / dead / never been alive, with fire and a seed included as deliberate contrast items.
    3. For each decision, name a life-process word that justifies it.

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